THE Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday, July 27, 2021, reported more than 7,000 new cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), the highest in more than a month, despite the low testing output because of the non-submission of data by 13 laboratories.

The DOH said the number is higher because the technical team extracted the data from the CovidKaya epidemiological surveillance system at 9 p.m. Monday, instead of the usual 1 p.m. extraction, because the data from the Covid-19 Document Repository System (CDRS) was pushed to CovidKaya only after 6 p,m.

The late extraction of data resulted in the higher number Tuesday. The number of new infections that will be reported on Wednesday is expected to be low, the DOH said.

In its case bulletin, the DOH reported 7,186 new cases, 72 additional deaths and 5,672 new recoveries.

The 7,186 new infections were the highest since the 7,302 recorded on June 13.

The new infections brought the cumulative case count to 1,562,420. A total of 162 duplicates were removed from the tally.

Testing output was very low at only 30,016, with a positivity rate of 13.2 percent, because 13 laboratories failed to submit their data to the CDRS.

The additional deaths, which included 49 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries, raised the death toll to 27,318. The case fatality rate remained at 1.75 percent.

Total recoveries went up to 1,478,625, comprising 94.6 percent of the total case count.

There remained 56,477 active cases in hospitals and isolation facilities. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)